State Fair of Texas, Y’all

I’m sure that other states have state fairs, but none are as famous and amazing as the State Fair of Texas. For one, I think we have cornered the market on original food creations that are battered and fried. Yes, in Texas we want your fair experience to contribute to your heart disease and eventual demise. Seriously, though, it takes creative people to dream up these creations and talent to make them taste good! I never did get my Fletcher’s Corn Dog because the lines were too long, but I did get to try a couple of the top 10 new foods this year. Neither one disappointed, especially in the artery-clogging department!

Texans LOVE Texas and there is no better place to witness this than at our State Fair. At least 50% of the fair-goers had some sort of clothing that represented Texas. It was AWESOME!

I’m going to try to just hit the highlights:

We started the day with breakfast at IHOP, and I took a picture because I knew that my bacon, meat-loving Canadian friend, Jane would NEVER believe that I ate this. And yes, I did eat sausage. Mark it down as a Red Letter Day!

Our first stop at the fair was the Chainsaw Carver….Bobby was excited about this one! It was interesting but I can honestly say I will never become a chainsaw carver. He carved a raccoon out of a stump right before our eyes in the span of about 30 minutes, which was pretty incredible.

Our favorite carving that he displayed was the Doxie, of course!

Too bad it wasn’t a Piebald Doxie!

Next stop was Big Tex for the cliche State Fair pic. This is as necessary as taking a pic in front of the castle at Magic Kingdom.

At this point, Taylor and Logan went off on their own while Bobby and I took Alli and her friend to ride rides. The Texas Star provides a great view of Dallas. I was so relieved that I didn’t drop my phone!

After we spent more time that I cared to spend riding rides, we were off to the Lone Star Horse Show. It was broken down into the different stages of Texas history and was entertaining to watch. My favorite part of this show, however, was at the end when a performer started singing Deep in the Heart of Texas…..of course everyone started clapping and singing along, because, well, Texas y’all.

A Vaquero showing off his lasso skills. Of course I didn’t take a pic of the lady singing Deep in the Heart of Texas….I was singing and clapping!

The most rewarding performance was given by the Marine Drum and Bugle Corp. It was deeply moving and I left with a renewed patriotism, plus a reminder of the sacrifices that the men in the Armed Services make for our country.

We ended the day with the Pig Races. Sooooo cute and entertaining! I had trouble moving on from the giant 1200+ lb. pig they brought out before the races….that could be a lot of bacon for Jane!

Training update:

The last couple weeks have been tough. Running Plano was a bad decision. I wish I had listened to my gut. I always regret not listening to my gut. My run last Monday was terrible….it was a mere two miles, but every step was filled with pain. At the time, I was certain that I was doomed. (Sometimes I’m a little dramatic.)

Tuesday I had an appointment with a guy that does ART (Active Release Technique). I was actually looking for ART when I found my myofascia guy and when he moved to Colorado I started the search again. All I can say is: I LOVE it! I felt immediate relief in my ankle and by the next morning I could barely tell that there were any problems.

Oh, and I have a new coach. I don’t have enough sense to do this on my own and I’m really excited about this new partnership. He is fully aware of the issues that I need to overcome, but I feel confident that he can navigate me to a strong finish at Dallas. I know I may not be strong enough to run the time I had hoped, but I’ll have to be OK with that (maybe).

Of course, he wanted me to run a threshold test to see where I stand fitness-wise. He told me ahead of time to immediately stop if I had any pain. I ran this workout without ANY pain! I actually did better than I expected, considering my point in recovery and the fact that I never, ever get to run anything as hard as I can. Naturally, my ankle was irritated afterwards, but with ice, foam rolling, stretching and KT Tape it recovered nicely and behaved on my “long” run yesterday. Even though it was a little uncomfortable during the run, I didn’t experience ANY post-run issues. This tells me 2 things: the workouts are appropriate for me and the ankle is healing!